I recently upgraded from preground coffee to grinding my whole beans, expecting to finally taste fresh ground coffee. I went down to the local supermarket and bought Peet's French Roast (whole beans), which is obviously of higher quality compared to the other brands sold there. However, I am still brewing the coffee the same way, with my Mr. Coffee drip brewer. I have not noticed a significant difference in taste at all and am quite disappointed. I drink it black and only black, so there is no milk or sugar affecting the taste. I understand that is virtually an absence of acidity dark roasted coffees but shouldn't there at least be some smoky, earthly undertone to it? It tastes watered down to me. Is it possible that since the coffee maker does not heat the coffee to boiling temperature, that the full flavor of the coffee is not being extracted? Here is what I do:

1) Use 8 Tablespoons of beans per 20oz water (1 cup measurement with brewer is 5oz)2) Grind 10-12 Seconds3) Use filtered water to brew

I was interested in purchasing a French Press.. would any of you recommend buying one?

If anyone can help me out with why there is a lack of taste, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

I mostly use melitta cones and chemex for my daily coffee. I have gotten tasteless beans and it took nearly the finest grind I could produce before the brown water tasted like coffee. Just last year I started buying beans from a Coffeegeek-recommended roaster. Until then I'd never tasted nuances like fruit or chocolate from a coffee bean. I couldn't get it from off-the-shelf coffee.

A French press is probably a good idea, because the Mr. Coffee is probably not heating the water enough to extract much flavor from the beans. A pour-over filter pot is an alternative. 10-12 sec may not be enough grinding for a filtered coffee, either; you might try 15-20.

I think that the only incarnation of brewing devices lower than the economy drip brewers found in the aisles of the local X-Mart is the percolator, and even then, I think I would pick the percolator over the Mr. Coffee. For no money, try the same routine, but remove the carafe and the filter-holding basket, make the coffee as usual, but heat the water in a kettle and pour it slowly, just off the boil, over the coffee in the basket, allowing it to drip into a carafe or even directly into a preheated coffee cup. If you boil on the stove and place the coffee gear at the other end of the kitchen, the drop in temperature in the water when you walk it across the floor to pour will be about right.

I think a VAST majority of participants on this forum would recommend an inexpensive Melitta pour-over cone over that Mr. Coffee. If, after this test you agree, Google "Pour over coffee maker" and see what pops up.

After that, we can talk Espro press. If that is outside the budget's parameters, then possibly an Aeropress. Any of my last three recommendations will get the best out of what ever coffee you choose.

Thank you for the replies everyone. Frcn, I'm going to try that and ill see how it goes. In the meantime, I'll try grinding finer. I know that if I get a pour over coffee maker, I'm sure ill need to get better coffee beans. Does anyone have any recommendations? I saw a bunch of roasters on gocoffeego and I don't even know where to begin. Also, would you suggest that I buy a pour over coffee maker over a French Press? Which of the two extracts the flavor more efficiently? I'd like to stay under $100 however.

What type of grinder are you using? If it is a blade grinder, I would purchase a burr grinder and a pour over cone first. Even a cheap plastic mellita cone for 5-6 dollars will work. As far as roasting goes, I started with a thrift stor 5 dollar popcorn popper( poppery 2), but an original poppery is the best if you can find one . You could also look at one of the small air roasters.

gocoffeego has a lot of good roasters that get coffee to you in a timely manner. Early on in my quest for good coffee, I enjoyed trying lots of different roasters. Ones I found to offer really good coffees were: Paradise Roasters, Johnson Brothers, Klatch, Metropolis, PT's. Actually, I used to let the specials be my guide. That way I'd usually end up with at least free shipping or some other kind of deal.

Gocoffeego is a great resource. I would definitely "let the specials be your guide," as was previously suggested. Look at a deal like, "buy 2 from Ritual, Free Shipping!" as is the deal right now, and look at the coffees they have from that roaster. Look for coffees that pique your interest, but don't be afraid to try coffees that might strike you as outside of your taste preference. It is my experience that most people start out absolutely hating acidity in coffees (which I think is driven by the fact that there is no such thing as pleasant acidity in SBUX and lower quality coffees) and then some end up loving acidity in coffees (like me) and some end up sticking with the bass tones (chocolates and caramels), but still can appreciate a bit of brightness in their brew.

Ritual roasts pretty lightly, and offers a lot of coffees with high acidity, so if you end up ordering from the Ritual batch they have right now, I would suggest something like the Costa Rica if you want to be safe. If you're looking for some adventure and experimentation, try the Kenya Kiawamururu. If you're used to coffees like Peets, you probably haven't had coffees that have much natural sweetness, and this coffee is mind-blowingly sweet. But again, you would be stepping off the deep end with that one.

I would like to second the question about the grinder. If you don't have a quality burr grinder, you're not going to be able to unlock much of the flavors in the coffee. There are some real nice hand grinders for cheap, or something like the Baratza Encore if you don't like the idea of hand grinding.

as someone suggested, a better grinder would help a lot. online roasters will also help a lot, as you can obtain freshly roasted coffee at a reasonable price, delivered to your door. Please let us know how the "pourover" goes. If you have a thermometer laying around, it will give a more accurate reading of water temp, than "walking across your kitchen" (which will vary depending on kitchen size)...Randy's (frcn) point is that you want the water slightly lower than boiling - you're shooting for about 200F. I used to be a huge fan of Peet's, but I think a copuple of things have changed that. First, I've grown a lot, in terms of coffee appreciation. Second, Peet's has outgrown their microroaster model...and now is a mass producer. I strongly belive their quality has taken a huge hit in the process. Also, in my opinion, French Roast takes a lot of the coffee flavor away from the bean. I agree with the prior post (can't recall who made it) to look for something less roasted.

.Always remember the most important thing is what ends up in your cup!

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